DETROIT–The Moroun family seldom steps out of the shadows to show itself to the world. They may be billionaires. They may own the most important bridge Canada has ever known. But they are just shy that way.

Yet when the local media takes to calling you "crabgrass," when Forbes magazine slams you as "the troll under the bridge," when you are on the verge of all-out war with Ottawa, exceptions must be made.

So here we are, inside the American family's astonishingly private corporate headquarters in suburban Detroit, with Matthew Moroun sitting across the table like the proverbial deer in the headlights.